Anti-Intellectualism in Nazi Germany

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Anti-Intellectualism in Nazi Germany

• Based on a PowerPoint by David S, Horace Greeley
  High School

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INTRODUCTION
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What is Anti-Intellectualism?

• Anti-intellectualism is expressed as hostility
  towards, or mistrust of, intellectuals and
  intellectual pursuits.
• It attacks merits of science, education,
  literature.
• Anti-intellectuals often see themselves as
  champions of the ordinary man.
• They are against academic elitism, often arguing
  that highly educated people from an isolated
  social group are dominating political discourse
  and higher education (academia).

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Consequences of Anti-Intellectualism

• It fosters a society where individual thought is
  discouraged and the worth of the truth is
  minimal.
• Authorities have more power
• They cant be challenged, because there is no
  intellectual spirit of dissent

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Consequences of Anti-Intellectualism

• Emergence of Pseudoscience
• (i.e. Eugenics)
• Rewriting of History
• Destruction of Literature

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Nazi Anti-Intellectualism

• Knowledge that benefited state was allowed (i.e.
  rocket science)
• Individual learning was frowned upon
• Independent thinking goes against public opinion
• Propaganda a new form of education
• Repression of the truth in favour of that which
  stirs up radical emotion

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CENTRAL QUESTION

• Why was anti-intellectualism such a critical
  element in sustaining Nazi culture from 1933-1945?

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NAZI BOOK BURNINGS
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Why burn books?

• A way of venting anger
• Symbolic transition of cultural values
• Intellectualism to radical emotionalism
• Unifies community in a ritual
• Intimidates intellectual community
• Frightening to see an angry mob that has lost
  touch with your values

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The Burning of the Books

• May 10, 1933
• Nazi Party declares that any book which acts
  subversively on our future or strikes at the root
  of German thought, the German home and the
  driving forces of our people... is to be burned.
• Jewish intellectuals were primary target, but
  also many non-Jews as well

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The Burning of the Books

• Students marched through the streets rampaging
  libraries, synagogues, and even private homes to
  loot books
• Books were thrown onto bonfire

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The Burning of the Books

• Nazis encouraged burnings, but discouraged
  publicising the burnings
• Aftermath
• Frightened many intellectuals, Jewish and
  non-Jewish, many fled Germany
• Jewish intellectualism is deadJoseph Goebbels
  after the 1933 book Burning

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Some Authors of Books Burned on 5/10/33

• Albert Einstein
• Havelock Ellis
• Lion Feuchtwanger
• Sigmund Freud
• André Gide
• Franz Kafka
• Erich Kästner
• Helen Keller
• Alfred Kerr
• Jack London
• Heinrich Mann
• Thomas Mann
• Karl Marx

• Hugo Preuss
• Marcel Proust
• Walter Rathenau
• Erich Maria Remarque
• Margaret Sanger
• Arthur Schnitzler
• Upton Sinclair
• Jakob Wasserman
• H. G. Wells
• Stefan Zweig
• Emile Zola

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EDUCATION INTHE THIRD REICH
Two Jewish students are humiliated in front of
their whole class. The writing on the board
proclaims the Jew is our greatest enemy! Beware
of the Jew!"
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The Nazi Classroom

• The Curriculum
• Racial biology and eugenics
• Celebratory German history
• Discipline, duty, obedience, courage
• Physical training Body over mind
• No concern for the spirit of academics

The Jewish Nose is Wide at the End and Looks
like the Number Six
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The Nazi Classroom

• Task of the Educator
• Strengthen the soul and spirit of youth
• Instill nationalism in younger generation
• Prepare students for service, and even
  self-sacrifice to the Reich
• NO INTENTION OF EDUCATING THE INDIVIDUAL FOR THE
  SAKE OF THE INDIVIDUAL

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The Nazi Classroom

• Strong desire to destroy the values of
• Liberal individualism
• Rationalism
• Intellectualism

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The Nazi Classroom

• Girls and boys were taught that they had clear
  roles in German society
• Boys would go on to be soldiers and fight for
  their country.
• It was the girls duty to become mothers and
  produce the next generation of soldiers.

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The Nazi Classroom

• Physical fitness was highly prized
• If you were fit you could produce lots of
  children.
• If you were fit you could become a soldier and
  fight for your country.

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The Nazi Classroom

• Antisemitism
• German children were taught that the Jews were
  responsible for many of the problems Germany was
  facing.
• They were taught that the Jews were an inferior
  race. Slavs, gay, Roma (Gypsy), mentally and
  physically disabled people, Jehovas witnesses,
  black people and children of mixed marriages were
  also seen as unter-menschen sub humans

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Reasons for this Education System

• Trained children to be good soldiers
• Easier to accept a total authority if you dont
  know how to think for yourself
• Ultimate Goal
• In Democracy Student learns so he may benefit
  himself
• In Totalitarian Germany Student learns so he may
  benefit the state

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Adolf Hitler on Education

• "Universal education is the most corroding and
  disintegrating poison that liberalism has ever
  inventedAdolf Hitler
• "Through clever and constant application of
  propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as
  hell, and also the other way roundAdolf Hitler

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Adolf Hitler on Education

• "The folkish state must not adjust
  itseducational workto the inoculation of mere
  knowledge, but to the breeding of absolutely
  healthy bodiesAnd here again, first place must
  be taken by the development of character,
  especially the promotion of will-power and
  determination, combined with the training of joy
  in responsibility, and only in last place comes
  scientific schooling." Mein Kampf

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The Hitler Youth (HJ)
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Clip From Triumph of the Will

• Click image to see video on YouTube
• Notice direction of film
• Shows how admired Hitler is
• Promotes radical emotionalism
• Notice serious faces, militarism of young boys

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Why was the HJ Necessary for Nazi Germany?

• Hitler believed the future of Nazi Germany was in
  its children
• Composed of a generation that knew almost only
  Nazism
• No need to suppress individual thinking if people
  are imprinted with anti-intellectual ideology at
  a young age

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Why was the HJ Necessary for Nazi Germany?

• Trained children for their roles as Nazi citizens
• Men Wehrsport (Military training)
• Women Preparation for Aryan motherhood

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Hitlers View of the HJ

• The weak must be chiseled away. I want young men
  and women who can suffer pain...
• "I will have no intellectual training. Knowledge
  is ruin to my young men

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Relevance of the HJ toAnti-Intellectualism

• The values of a culture result from the values
  instilled in its youth
• In Europe pressure to do well in school, get a
  job, make money
• In Nazi Germany Children were worth only what
  they contributed to the state

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Social Atmosphere in anAnti-Intellectual Germany
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Nazi Populism

• Whoever can conquer the street will one day
  conquer the state...Joseph Goebbels
• Struggle against privileged elite
• Especially Jews
• Intellectuals are elitists and tricksters
• Hoodwink opponents with rhetoric

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The Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and
Propaganda

• Spread and enforced Nazi ideology
• The antithesis of intellectual-based culture
• Rampant anti-Semitism
• Infected all mediums of art and literature

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Why have aMinistry of Propaganda?

• In a totalitarian regime, public opinion must be
  molded to fit the state
• In contrast, Intellectualism would demand
• Tolerance of dissent
• Ability to question authority
• Independent thought
• Formulation of rational ideas

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KristallnachtNight of the Broken Glass

• Political assassination by Jew ignites spark
• Nazi youth destroys Jewish buildings
• Considered beginning of Holocaust

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Joseph GoebbelsHead of the Anti-intellectual
Serpent
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Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels

• Head of Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and
  Propaganda
• A textbook example of the anti-intellectualism he
  promoted
• Extreme, unconditional loyalty to Hitler he was
  practically in love with him

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Goebbels on Truth and Intellectualism

• Intellectual activity is a danger to the
  building of character
• It is the absolute right of the State to
  supervise the formation of public opinion.
• Not every item of news should be published.
  Rather must those who control news policies
  endeavour to make every item of news serve a
  certain purpose.

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The Big Lie Theory

• If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating
  it, people will eventually come to believe it.
  The lie can be maintained only for such time as
  the State can shield the people from the
  political, economic and/or military consequences
  of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for
  the State to use all of its powers to repress
  dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the
  lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the
  greatest enemy of the State.Joseph Goebbels

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CONCLUSIONS
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What Anti-intellectualism Does

• A force that seeks to unify
• The mind of a nation
• The will of a nation
• Censorship of truth
• Idea that truth is irrelevant is dangerous
• Use of propaganda to direct public opinion

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Karl Rove (Bush adviser) on Intellectualism

• As people do better, they start voting like
  Republicansunless they have too much education
  and vote Democratic, which proves there can be
  too much of a good thingKarl Rove

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The End(or is it?)